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North-East Railway Book, The by Ken Hoole Hard Cover
North-East Railway Book, The by Ken Hoole
Hard Cover
96 pages
Copyright 1979
CONTENTS
Preface4
Introduction 5
1 Engines and men - and women15
2 Signalboxes and Signalmen24
3 Road Transport30
4 Stockton & Darlington Railway34
5 Other Independents40
6 Locomotive Builders and Repairers42
7 Rolling Stock and Bridges50
8 Electrification58
9 Accidents64
10 Freight Traffic71
11 Locomotives in the North East78
12 Light Railways etc87
13 A couple of oddities92
14 Inclines93
15 Locomotive headboards94
16 A quartet of ephemera96
INTRODUCTION
Improvements in the use of steam power in the last quarter of the eighteenth century paved the way for the development of the steam locomotive in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It it not certain who actually invented the steam locomotive, although Richard Trevithick has a very strong claim to that distinction, but once it was proved that steam could be used to power an `Iron Horse' development was rapid, especially in areas where minerals were worked. This was because cheaper and improved methods of transport were always being sought, particularly in mining areas where it was necessary to get coal from the mine to the consumer as economically as possible. Consequently in Northumberland and Durham, on opposite banks of the River Tyne, various men were striving to construct practical steam locomotives suitable for hauling wagons of coal from the pithead to the shipping points (staiths) on the banks of the river. Among them were William Hedley and George Stephenson, the latter founding in 1823 the firm of Robert Stephenson & Co to specialise in the building of locomotives; he was also responsible for planning and supervising the construction of the Hetton Railway, opened in 1822, and the Stockton & Darlington Railway, opened in 1825, the world's first steam worked public railway.
Because of its location on the line of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (which did not actually terminate at Darlington but at Witton Park, some distance to the north west) Darlington became an important locomotive building centre and the products of William & Alfred Kitching, John Harris, I' Anson & Co, Robert Stephenson & Co, and the NER's North Road Engine Works are illustrated in this work. The North east was also notable for the number of concerns which built locomotives for their own use, for example Albert Hill Ironworks, Darlington, the Earl of Durham's Railway, Philadelphia, near Sunderland, and the Londonderry Railway at Seaham Harbour; there were also numerous small engine building concerns scattered throughout County Durham which turned their hand to locomotive construction when the demand was large and the results profitable.
The large number of steam locomotives at work at the many collieries, quarries, shipyards and chemical works, also brought a demand for firms which specialised in the repair of locomotives; some, moreover, also acted as dealers, rebuilding and reconditioning locomotives they had bought for resale. Well known names in this field were J.F. Wake of Darlington, T.D. Ridley (later Ridley, Shaw & Co Ltd) of Middlesbrough, and Lingford, Gardiner of Bishop Auckland. This led to the introduction of some strange types to the North east as these dealers purchased bargains in Southern England, or South Wales, and resold them to industrialists in Durham and Northumberland. Thus it was possible to see engines from the London, Brighton & South Coast, Taff Vale, Barry and Great Eastern railways, and many others besides, hard at work in the North East.
Some of the colliery systems had large fleets of locomotives and one, the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey combine, had more than 50, with its own works where extensive overhauls and rebuildings were carried out. The largest locomotive works in the area however was the North Road Engine Works in Darlington, opened by the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1863 and taken over by the North Eastern Railway later the same year. The NER also had works at Gateshead but it was closed in 1932 and the work transferred to Darlington, which became responsible for the overhaul of all the engines in the North Eastern Area, plus others from the former Great Northern, Great Central, Great Eastern and North British railways.
Over the years far too little attention has been paid to the countless men - and women - who have served the railways in their long existence. Not only were there the station staff and train crews with which the travelling public came into daily contact, but many other grades employing their skills and experience behind the scenes to keep the system working smoothly and safely.
People think of the driver as the man who guided their train safely from A to B, but what about the signalmen who carefully passed it on its way, and the permanent way staff who, in all weathers, maintained the track to a high standard? And what about the bridge inspectors, surveying every bridge over or under the line, or the men with the particularly cold and filthy job of inspecting the interior of every dark, dank and dirty tunnel?
The steam locomotive itself, for long the centre of attention, required frequent maintenance, filling the tender with coal and water, cleaning the char out of the smokebox and the clinker from the firebox. The shed staff had all this to do. The working parts of a steam locomotive moreover were heavy and cumbersome, and far too often were in awkward positions which were difficult to reach. Unfortunately in this country there was far too little co-operation between the staff responsible for designing and building locomotives and those who worked on them or drove them in everyday service.
You may have had the rare privilege of standing on the footplate of a steam locomotive when it was stationary and, perhaps, on a cold and frosty morning, taken advantage of a warm from the firebox, but how different it is when an engine is on the move. A steel wheel on a steel rail does not give a smooth and quiet ride when up to 100 tons of engine is moving on the rails. As soon as the driver opened the regulator there was that fascinating sound of the steam rushing through the valve to the cylinders, then the sound of the first exhaust beat and the first flicker of the fire. As the engine began to move, the bangs, creaks and rattles increased, particularly if the wheels at first failed to grip and spun freely, but even when running smoothly on straight track there was enough noise to make conversation difficult.
Another point that always struck me when I was privileged to ride on the footplate was the change that came over the crew as the engine began laboriously to get its heavy train on the move; they may have been fiercely discussing a certain horse-race, the merits of the local brew, or even politics, but, once they were moving, all their concentration was on the signals and the behaviour of the engine. Conversation was limited to brief reports and acknowledgement of whether signals ahead were `on' or `off', and sometimes even these details were conveyed across the cab by hand-signals. Every few minutes the fireman would open the firehole door and put a fairly precise number of shovelsful of coal on the fire, carefully placed round the grate to ensure even burning, but he would invariably cease firing at the opportune moment to catch sight of a signal which could first be seen from his side of the cab, perhaps one that was round a curve or over some trees. With their long experience every driver, and most firemen, knew exactly the point from which each signal could be seen, and most drivers were only too pleased to pass on their knowledge to their fireman, who had hopes of Weigh cabin near Whitby about 1900. This was built by the Whitby & Pickering Railway, of which the eastern section was opened in 1835. Both British Rail and the local authority have declined to maintain this historic building and it is now little more than a heap of stone blocks.
becoming a driver himself one day. If a driver and fireman did not get on well together it was best that they were separated as soon as possible. The footplate of an express travelling at speed was no place to have petty arguments.
The days of one crew to one engine, or two crews to one engine, have long since gone, although at some of the smaller depots this practice continued almost until the end of steam traction. With their own engine the crews looked after it much better than an engine they handled for half a turn of duty, and then did not see again for days, weeks, or even months. One writer recalled years ago seeing the driver of a North Eastern Class Z Atlantic hauling a Newcastle-Liverpool express, get down from his cab during the stop at Ripon to wipe over the polished front buffers of his engine. It had started to rain and he carefully greased the buffer heads before starting away for the next stop at Harrogate.
Drivers and firemen were proud of their engines and liked to be photographed on or alongside them. Fortunately a number of such photographs have survived, often in the possession of children and grandchildren, who can vaguely remember the old man in his blue dungarees, and also the unusual hours he used to keep, for railways are a 24 hour service and crews are required at all times of day and night to work both passenger and freight trains.
Signalmen had their contrasting conditions; in a small cabin on a branch line there was often no one to talk to, whereas in a large and busy cabin, with two, three, or four men on duty at a time, there was no opportunity for idle chatter. Full concentration was needed and the only conversation was about traffic and shunting movements, interrupted frequently by the jangling of the telephone bells as other boxes and control reported deviations from the timetable and the steps to be taken to work the traffic as expeditiously as possible. Almost to a man signalmen were - and still are - a conscientious body of men; they had to be to carry out their duties when many lives depended upon strict adherence to the rules. Rules were designed to prevent accidents on railways, and they usually succeeded; when trouble arose it was usually because two or more men ignored the rules at the same time, thus losing the intended safeguard of one man's actions being a check on the other. This is brought out frequently in the fascinating accident reports, issued for well over a century by government appointed inspectors, whether at various times from the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Transport, or the Department of the Environment.
Permanent way staff were usually seen leaning on their shovels as a train passed, but what else could they do? Far too many men have lost their lives while working on the track, and in this day of trains travelling at up to 125mph their task is even more potentially dangerous. Now, however, far more track work is being carried out by on-track machines, and this often requires regular trains to be diverted (usually at week-ends), when lines are blocked by maintenance machines.
In the days of semaphore signals using oil lamps the permanent way men were called out at all hours to go `fogging', standing at a signal with flags, lamps and detonators; sometimes he had a glowing brazier to keep him warm in the cold fog and swirling steam, and essential refreshment was provided at the railways expense if he was on duty for sufficient hours! The permanent way men also had the dirty end of the stick if there was a heavy snowfall; they had first to clear the points and rodding, signals and wires, and then, if there was a complete blockage, dig the snow away to free a trapped train. The trans Pennine lines of the NER often suffered in a severe winter.
Locomotives had to be overhauled regularly at the main workshops; day to day repairs and adjustments were carried out at running sheds, but when the boiler had to be removed, new cylinders were required, or any task beyond the capabilities of the shed, then the engine had to go to `works'. In the nineteenth century the North Eastern Railway had works at a number of the larger railway towns, but by the turn of the century only those at York, Gateshead and Darlington remained in use. York closed in 1905 and Gateshead in 1932, leaving only North Road Works at Darlington to maintain all the engines in the North Eastern Area of the LNER.
For more than a century they carried out extensive repairs and renewals, supplying new frames, fireboxes, boilers and cylinders, turning out engines in a coat of new paint, green for all engines until 1904, then green for the passenger engines and black for the goods engines, an economy measure estimated to save ,000 a year! A reduction in the number of LNER classes to be painted green, introduced in 1928 as a further economy measure,
brought about the dismissal of nine painters and the reduction in grade of seven others! Railway employment, although fairly regular, was not a sinecure and men were dismissed, laid off, or put on short time, depending on the state of the traffic. In the slump of the early 1930s many footplate staff were redundant and firemen were downgraded to cleaners, while cleaners were often glad to take jobs as porters. As trade and traffic improved they were recalled to the locomotive department and many retired as drivers in the 1960s.
The North Eastern Railway was notable for the statistics it compiled to show up inefficiencies in its system, and in 1902 a traffic statistics office was set up in York under C.P. Mossop, who later became Assistant to the General Manager. The company issued an invaluable series of booklets to its officers, such as traffic statistics, mineral statistics, population tables and passenger bookings, expenses at junctions with other companies, and locomotive statistics. Thus at a glance one could see the amount of each type of traffic conveyed, the revenue it brought in, and the cost of working it. Taking the last full year before World War I, for instance, the NER carried 43,030,426 tons of mineral traffic in the year, or approximately 140,000 tons every working day. Another interesting item is that North Eastern locomotives consumed 976,326 tons of coal in 1913, or 7.19% of the national consumption by locomotives.
Coal was shipped for export at numerous ports and harbours along the North East coast From Hull to Tweedmouth and those handling the largest quantities were:
TonsTons
Tyne Dock7,139,651 Lambton Staiths 1,918,277*
Hull3,590,299 East Hartlepool 1,829,463
North Blyth2,866,669 South Blyth1,420,011
Dunston2,776,380 Sunderland1,352,043
*this traffic was conveyed over the NER from Penshaw but shipped at the colliery company's staiths.
(Incidentally the NER always used staiths, never staithes. The latter was the name of a station near Whitby!)
The coal output of the United Kingdom in 1913 was 287,430,473 tons, of which Northumberland produced 14,819,284 tons, and County Durham 41,532,890 tons. Coal and coke carried in 1913 by the railways serving the principal coal mining areas amounted to:
Tons
North Eastern44,165,950
Midland27,834,531
London & North Western 23,496,970
North Eastern locomotives worked regularly to Edinburgh on East Coast expresses and this is the pioneer engine of Fletcher's famous 901 class standing at Waverley station. The Rainbow dining rooms in the background disappeared with the construction of the new North Bridge and the remodelling of the station in the 1890s. The driver is Enoch Shipley (later a locomotive inspector) who was driving 901 when it was derailed at Morpeth in 1877.
Tons
Great Western22,142,823
North British21,233,792
Taff Vale15,682,640
Caledonian13,026,909
In County Durham large quantities of coke were produced for iron and steel making, and not only for ironworks in the North East, for large amounts were supplied to West Cumberland. The 1913 statistics show:
Coal used to make coke in
County Durham9,153,636 tons
Coke produced from above5,822,799 tons
The coke came from 9,578 ovens, of which 7,326 were of the `beehive' type, which were being replaced by larger and more modern designs of ovens. The number of `beehive' ovens in 1905 was 14,259!
Later the company developed an extensive network of bus services around Durham, and for years operated day and half-day tours based on Bridlington, Scarborough, Whitby and Harrogate, using char-a-bancs, with the seats rising in tiers, so that passengers in the rear seats required a ladder to reach them! The North Eastern also used a small fleet of steam wagons for country goods delivery and collection services, but these steamers were not really successful on the poor roads of 75 years ago! Road passenger services were transferred to associated companies in the 1920s and early 1930s, but the country goods services were developed, especially as wayside stations began to be closed from 1930. Rail closures were not the sole prerogative of Dr. Beeching in the 1960s!
For many years it was the practice to photograph locomotives with the crew and such photographs usually had a limited circulation among the men concerned, but in this day and age it has become fashionable to photograph locomotives with no human being in sight, be it footplate staff, shed staff, or even fellow enthusiasts. I feel that because of this much human interest has been lost; engines needed crews so why not photograph them? Many a time I look at a photograph of a group on or around a locomotive, and wonder what happened to them. Were they married, had they a family, what did they think of their job, what was their pay, what did they think of the locomotives with which they were provided, what was their housing like? There were so many more things which are a part of their social history. Railways were not simply locomotives and trains!
To help remedy this scarcity I have tried to choose photographs which show the staff, the lifeblood of any railway, be they footplate crews, permanent way men, signalmen, works staff, motor drivers, or staff from the head office at York.
The effects of the Beeching Plan, modernisation, and rationalisation have played havoc with railways in the North East, not least in buildings. Many stations have been demolished, or are now used for other purposes; locomotive sheds have almost disappeared, goods sheds are vanishing as traffic is concentrated at fewer depots, signalboxer have been decimated, and coal cells have been slaughtered. Items peculiar to railway operation - turntables, water cranes, coaling plants and the like are almost non-existent, while many bridges have gone where a line closure made it worthwhile to demolish bridges to recover scrap metal. Docks have been closed and are derelict, following the canals into obscurity.
What about the other side of the coin? Less than a handful of new stations have appeared, usually small structures to serve housing development in particular areas; better facilities have appeared at some of the larger stations, and much improved rolling stock has been produced to woo travellers from private cars and buses. Signalling and track improvements have been carried out to obtain higher speeds and shorter journey times, in some cases to compete with air travel. But does everyone want higher speeds, and increased fares to pay for them? Certainly there are operating benefits with better use of stock in the working day.
Railways in the North East have certainly seen change; after the graceful designs of NER locomotives, taking a hand in the East Coast partnership, came the glorious speed exploits of the LNER Pacifies, then the purely functional `Deltic' diesels which brought everyday 100mph running, and now the High Speed Trains streaking along the beautifully aligned NER main line north of York at 125 mph. The NER was among the electrification pioneers with its Tyneside suburban lines, de-electrified by BR in the 1960s, only to be re-electrified in the late 1970s as a pioneer British rapid transit railway running underground below Newcastle. The NER would have been proud of it!
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